Worcester Jewelry Store Owner Stabbed During Robbery

WORCESTER (CBS) – The owners of a Worcester jewelry store are recovering after a robber beat them and made off with a stash of jewelry.

A witness saw a man outside of the Garabedian Jewelers on West Boylston Street, putting a black face mask on. “I heard glass breaking and a few people screaming,” says Stefan Sandvos.

He called 911. The robber smashed the glass display cases with a hammer.

By coincidence, a rookie state trooper happened to be close by when it happened. Erin McLaughlin was on her third day of patrolling. She was on a routine traffic stop training with a more experienced trooper, when someone flagged them down for help.

Glass case smashed inside Garabedian Jewelers.

“I took off in the direction the witnesses were saying. They were saying, ‘He’s right here, he’s right here,'” explains McLaughlin. She ran after the suspect for nearly a mile, through back yards and over fences. “They said, ‘He’s right here.’ They said, ‘He’s wearing a black shirt. He jumped a fence.”

Her partner was able to arrest 24-year-old Chris Fiorentino a few blocks away on Randall Street.

The owner’s wife tells WBZ she’s doing OK, but her husband had surgery. He had serious cuts on his face and abdomen.

Could you possibly bring yourself to mention the name of her partner who actually arrested the robber?

This is o obviously a puff piece for women-in- a -traditionally-male-profession
that it hardly rates top billing. Had you emphasized the crime and given fair coverage to both troopers involved it would have had more credibility.

Suggestion for the store owners. Get fire arms training and a license- then a buy a gun. It worked out well for a Worcester liquor store owner – not so well for the scum bag who was committing the robbery – he died.